Monty Panesar

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Monty Panesar England (Eng)
Batting style	Left hand bat
Bowling type	Slow left arm orthodox
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	13	12
Runs scored	86	6
Batting average	8.60	6.00
100s/50s	0/0	0/0
Top score	26	6
Balls bowled	2945	612
Wickets	42	11
Bowling average	33.71	41.00
5 wickets in innings	3	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a
Best bowling	5/72	2/35
Catches/stumpings	2/0	2/0
As of 24 March 2007 Source: Cricinfo.com

Mudhsuden Singh Panesar (born 25 April 1982 in Luton, Bedfordshire), popularly known as Monty Panesar, is an English cricketer. A left-arm spinner with a classical action, Panesar plays Test and ODI cricket for England, and county cricket for Northamptonshire.

Born to Indian Punjabi parents, he is the first Sikh to represent a nation other than India in Test cricket. Panesar sports a trademark black patka (a smaller version of the full Sikh turban) while playing and in cricket training. He is a crowd favourite in England, and many English fans have worn patkas and fake beards while watching Panesar play.

Despite his embryonic international career Panesar often receives loud cheers whenever he comes on to bat or bowl and when he fields the ball, the latter due to Panesar's history of less than skillful fielding. When first selected for England he was widely said to be a particularly inept batsman and fielder, which may have contributed to this reception; the TMS commentator Henry Blofeld once accidentally referred to him as Monty Python[1], a mistake possibly encouraged by his comic reputation. However in more recent matches he has lived down these claims, and gained further popularity with his characteristic wicket-taking celebration, which consists of him gamboling down the pitch and high fiveing his team-mates.

Contents 1 Background 2 Development 3 Cricketing ability 3.1 Bowling 3.2 Batting 3.3 Fielding 3.4 Work ethic 3.5 The left-handed doosra 4 Test selection 5 ODI Selection 6 England in Australia 2006/2007 7 Notable performances 8 Personal life 9 Trivia 10 External links 11 Notes

[edit] Background

Panesar is a devout Sikh. His father, Paramjeet Singh Panesar, who moved to England in 1979, is a builder. His mother is Gursharan Kaur. Panesar has a younger brother, Isher Singh Panesar, and sister, Charanjit Kaur Panesar. His family lives in Luton.

[edit] Development

Panesar played a lot of cricket for Dunstable Town CC, at Bedford Modern School and previously Stopsley High School before being selected for the England Under-19 team and making his first-class debut in 2001 at the age of 19. Originally a medium-pace bowler, he shifted to spin at around sixteen following advice from Northamptonshire. His appearances over the next few years were limited, partly because of his commitment as a full-time student at Loughborough University. After graduating, he became a more important member of the team and had a fine season in 2005, taking 46 County Championship wickets at an average of just 21.54.

[edit] Cricketing ability

Panesar is regarded as a bright prospect by some commentators, and has been singled out for high praise by some. Noteworthy praise came from England's head coach Duncan Fletcher, who, although initially reluctant to single out Panesar, described him as "the best finger spinner in the world".^{[citation needed]}

He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 2007 edition.

[edit] Bowling

Panesar's current bowling average, which hovers around the 30 mark after just 13 Tests, compares reasonably favourably with the more established finger-spinners such as Harbhajan Singh and Daniel Vettori. Panesar demonstrated his ability to take Test wickets in his first match in Nagpur, India, where his first Test wicket was that of respected Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. He also bowled batsmen Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif. In the 2006 Test Series against Sri Lanka, Panesar claimed his first five-wicket haul for 78 runs, in the third Test at Trent Bridge. Monty went on to take 5 for 92 and 3 for 145 in the 3rd test match in Australia, in December 2006, despite England losing the match.

[edit] Batting

Panesar has shown signs of potential but is not yet a confident batsman, averaging just under nine runs per innings. His best international innings was during Muttiah Muralitharan's onslaught at Trent Bridge in 2006, when Panesar scored 26 off 28 balls by employing the sweep shot, including a swept six. In the 2006 Perth Ashes Test Match, Panesar scored an unbeaten 16 runs, putting on the biggest partnership of the innings with fellow bowler Steve Harmison.

[edit] Fielding

Panesar's fielding has been the subject of much discussion. England coach Duncan Fletcher had previously gone so far as to suggest that this could keep him out of the side if it does not improve. At the start of his Test career, this led to loud sardonic cheers from the crowd for completing even the simplest fielding tasks. Many commentators believe that his fielding has since improved somewhat; he held an impressive catch in England's third Test match against Pakistan at Headingley in 2006.

[edit] Work ethic

Panesar loves training and is becoming renowned for being a fastidious worker, regularly leaving the practice ground after everyone else. According to Andrew Strauss, who has captained him in four Tests, Panesar "will be on the ground earlier than anyone, getting (assistant coach) Matthew Maynard to hit catches to him. He will then bowl through most of the net session, before staying out long after most of the guys are back in the comfort of the dressing room, working on his batting, learning new shots, and perfecting those few he already has."[2]

[edit] The left-handed doosra

On August 11th 2006, in an interview with Neil McLeman of the UK Newspaper the Daily Mirror, Panesar stated his intention to develop a left-handed version of the doosra, the off-spinner's version of the googly:

"I am working on my version of the doosra - a ball which turns the other way - but we will just have to see what happens with it. As I gradually add things, it is one of my ambitions to be the best. It would be nice one day to be recognised as that."

[edit] Test selection

Due to his performances in 2005, many prominent figures^[1][2][3] called for Panesar's inclusion in the English Test squad for the 2006 tour of India. For a place as back-up spinner to incumbent Ashley Giles he faced competition from left-armer Ian Blackwell and off-spinners Shaun Udal and Alex Loudon. It was suggested that his reputation for poor batting and fielding might hamper his chances of selection, but earlier in 2005 he had attended the Darren Lehmann Academy in Adelaide in order to address these issues. He was selected in January 2006 for the tour to India, and made his international debut in the first Test against India in Nagpur. He took three wickets, including India's ex and current captains, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. He also played in the second and third Test matches, in Mohali and Mumbai.

[edit] ODI Selection

Despite his performances in the Test arena against Pakistan in the summer of 2006, Panesar was overlooked for the 30 man ODI squad for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India. However, after the Ashes series, Panesar was selected in the England squad for the Commonwealth Bank series with Australia and New Zealand.

Panesar's attacking bowling style worked well, bowling economically and aggressively in equal parts. He made his debut against Australia at Melbourne on 12th January 2007 and played in nine matches in the series, taking nine wickets and conceding just 4.6 runs per over.

[edit] England in Australia 2006/2007

The likelihood of Panesar playing against Australia in the 2006-07 Ashes series led to media commentary by some Australian players, who indicated that they would take an aggressive approach towards him. Australian captain Ricky Ponting said, "We'll try to make some sort of impact on him early on, and we won't let him get on top. The way our left-handers, especially Justin Langer and Matty Hayden, play spin is to be fairly aggressive." However, he was also praised by Ponting. Ponting told the Sunday Age, "He (Panesar) didn't look like he was scared to throw the ball up a little bit and actually try and get you out. He's got good, subtle changes of pace and, watching the other night (against Pakistan), a really good arm ball as well."

Darren Lehmann said "He's probably a more attacking bowler than Giles was, and a wicket-taking option for them, more so than Giles was." Also stating on the possibility of Australian crowds targeting Panesar because of his poor fielding and batting, Lehmann stuck up for Panesar saying ."He should have no worries at all... He's a beautiful lad." [3]

It also emerged that Panesar had been seeing a sports psychologist and talking to former England left-arm spinner Phil Tufnell, another English spinner who was poor at fielding, about the ribbing he is expecting to get from the Aussie crowds on the tour, and how to prepare himself mentally for the task.

Panesar was left out of the England team for the first two tests of the series, which led to a petiton being started by BBC Radio Five Live, calling out for his inclusion [4]. Panesar was eventually selected to play in the third test at the WACA in Perth. He finished the first innings with figures of 5 for 92 off 24 overs, with Justin Langer, Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist among his wickets, becoming the first English spin bowler to take five wickets in a test match at the WACA in Perth, his other two wickets being Shane Warne and Brett Lee). He also performed respectably with the bat, finishing on 16 not out as part of England's best partnership in the innings.

During the Tests Pansesar played, he quickly became a crowd favourite. for both Australian and English fans, eliciting cheers from the crowd when fielding, bowling or batting.

He remained in the team for the rest of the series, finishing with a record of 10 wickets at an average of 37.90 and collecting a total of 35 runs. He was the joint third highest wicket taker for England behind Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff, tying with Steve Harmison, having only played in three out of the five tests.

[edit] Notable performances

Panesar took 3 wickets in the first innings of the Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford, Manchester, on the 27th of July 2006. His wicket-taking was overshadowed by Steve Harmison who took a six wicket haul to get Pakistan all out for 119 in the 1st innings. However, Panesar took 5-72 in the second innings, and Harmison 5-57. The pair took 19 of the 20 Pakistani wickets in the match (the other being a run out) in an innings-and-120-run victory. This was the first time two bowlers had taken all bowling wickets since Jim Laker's record match figures of 19 for 90. In the second innings Panesar took the wickets of five of the six specialist batsmen, including Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.

In the first innings at Headingley Panesar showed a high level of endurance, bowling 47.4 overs, and picking up 3 wickets including that of Inzamam-ul-Haq, who overbalanced and dislodged the bails with his stomach. In the second innings Panesar had figures of 3 for 39. Panesar was given some credit for responding to criticism from England coach Duncan Fletcher [5].

[edit] Personal life

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Panesar has a large supportive family both in England and Punjab, his parents having migrated to England from India in the late 1970s^{[citation needed]}. Thirty-five of his family members attended the Test against India at Mohali, Punjab in March 2006.

Panesar himself has been quoted as saying, “I follow Sikhism, and maybe I’ve channelled the discipline that religion creates into my cricket. There’s discipline with any religion, and you can take it into a game or into anything else." (The Sunday Times, August 06, 2006 [6]). Away from cricket, he has a degree in computer science.^[4] Panesar has uncut hair and a full length beard, which is a fundamental part of the Sikh identity and way of life.

[edit] Trivia

• Nicknames for Panesar include "The Montster", "The Python" (a reference to Monty Python), The "Sikh of Tweak" (probably a humourous reference to Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne's (though mispronounced) sobriquet, 'The Sheik of Tweak)' [7], "Montastic", "Parmesan Tony" (an anagram), "The Beard to be Feared", or most popular "The Turbanator" (though this can also refer to Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh).
• Monty Panesar won the 2006 Beard of the Year competition run by the Beard Liberation Front. [8]
• Panesar is the 631st capped player for England
• Panesar's ODI squad number is 46

[edit] External links

• Player Profile: Monty Panesar from Cricinfo
• Cricket Online: Monty Panesar
• Video interview with expressandstar.com
• The Sunday Times' 'The Big Interview: Monty Panesar
• The Daily Mirror' 'Panesar Exclusive
• Monty Panesar Official Website

[edit] Notes

	England squad - 2007 Cricket World Cup
1 Bell | 2 Bopara | 3 Joyce | 4 Pietersen | 5 Strauss | 6 Vaughan | 7 Collingwood | 8 Dalrymple | 9 Flintoff | 10 Nixon | 11 Anderson | 12 Lewis | 13 Mahmood | 14 Panesar | 15 Plunkett | Coach: Fletcher